Blade's face gave his answer. «Exactly,» went on Thambral. «Hurakun can say to his people, 'Is it truly your wish that I lead you by the tens of thousands to your deaths in battle merely for the sake of Ayocan?' I wonder how many of them will say yes?»
Blade had to laugh out loud. «Your Majesty, I am beginning to think King Hurakun had no need to send me to your lands. The true gods know the Ayocani had no need for another enemy in Gonsara. Not with you sitting on the throne.»
Thambral laughed also. «For that compliment you deserve some reward above what I was already planning to give you.»
«Your Majesty?»
Thambral made no reply, but instead rang a bell. A servant ran in and prostrated himself before Thambral. The king murmured a few words, inaudible to Blade, into the man's ear, and dismissed him.
The servant was back within a few minutes. Behind him were four soldiers carrying a curtained litter. Thambral smiled at the bewilderment on Blade's face. «Go on, Blade. Open the king's gift.» Blade stepped up to the litter, jerked open the curtain-and Natrila wriggled out and into his arms. When he had untangled himself from her and could turn to face the king, Thambral was grinning still more broadly. «She should not have said that she was Isgon's daughter. When she said that, my soldiers very nearly slew her on the spot. But when she mentioned your name, she was saved.» Thambral stood up and made a gesture of dismissal. Blade bowed and started to lead Natrila out of the chamber.
He was just passing out the door when Thambral called after him. «Don't use up all your strength on her, Blade. Save some of it for the march north. We will be on our way within a week, perhaps two at the most. And you will be with me.»
Chapter 20
Twenty thousand of Thambral's soldiers were on the march north from Dafar within a week. Meanwhile ships and barges and war galleys came into the docks of Dafar from all along the river. Five thousand armed soldiers and ten thousand more soldiers climbed aboard them, and two weeks later they sailed north. Toward the middle of the third week, a messenger came to Blade in the gray dawn as he lay beside Natrila. Before she had drifted off to sleep, she had said she was carrying his child.
«Warrior Blade, King Thambral commands you.»
«How?»
«That you be aboard his flagship at noon today. He sails to join his fleet and army on the borders of Gonsara.»
«I will be there.»
It cost him more pain than he had expected, to say goodbye to Natrila. She was as worried about him as if he had been going into a full-scale war. And he also knew- that it was long odds against his being able to return to her. He had been in this dimension a good while now. Sooner or later Lord Leighton's computer would reach out across the dimensions and grasp his brain, plucking him home like a ripe fruit from a branch.
But after all the goodbyes, he was aboard Thambral's flagship when it sailed that noon. And he was on board it ten days later when it caught up with the rest of the Gonsaran forces. The fleet almost blocked the river, and the tents and horse-lines of the soldiers covered the land for a mile along either bank. The clear sky was hazed gray with smoke from the campfires on the land and the cookfires in the brick furnaces aboard the hundreds of ships.
Thambral's plan had worked-so far. The Gonsarans outnumbered the Chiribuan forces on the spot five or six to one. More important, the Chiribuans freely admitted they had orders to avoid a fight at almost all costs. If the Gonsarans did not cross the frontier, there would be no fighting.
The Gonsarans were more than willing to sit where they were, and so there was no fighting. But there was a constant exchange of messages between the two kings. Toward the end of the second week of the staring contest, a message arrived from King Hurakun. King Thambral promptly called Blade to his cabin.
«King Hurakun suggests that he and I meet on a barge in mid-river, to come to an agreement for dealing with the cult of Ayocan. He says he is willing to move forcibly against them as long as I keep my army and fleet on his borders. The danger from Gonsara, he says, has most people unwilling to fight or die for the cult. In fact, he says his army and fleet would quite possibly mutiny if he asked them to fight.» Thambral leaned back in his chair and cracked his knuckles. «You have heard Hurakun in person on this matter more recently than I. What do you say? Can I trust him?»
«I think Hurakun is telling the truth. You can trust him, at least.»
Thambral nodded. «I see. Do you think there is someone I cannot trust, among the House of the Serpent?»
«Yes. Second Prince Piralu. I have never met him, unfortunately, so I can only tell you what I have heard.» Blade summarized his knowledge of the Second Prince. Thambral's lean face grew sober.
«I see,» he said again. «You think Piralu may make this meeting an occasion for treachery?»
«Yes, and the crudest sort of treachery. Consider, your Majesty. The kings of both Gonsara and Chiribu will be together in a single ship in the middle of the river. If a boatload of Holy Warriors and Death-Vowed were to slip alongside. .»
Thambral frowned. «You think Piralu is that desperate?»
«By now-yes, your Majesty. Without the cult of Ayocan he will have small hope of grasping power. The Holy Warriors were to have been his army as well as the Supreme Brother's. Now, though, he can see the end of the cult approaching. I can only say that if I were in his position, I would certainly make one final effort.»
«That may be true, Blade. But I can hardly bring war-galleys to the meeting. Hurakun specifically asks that I come to the barge with only one ship.»
«That need not be a problem, your Majesty. The ship will have to have a crew and rowers, will it not? Why not have both the crew and the rowers alike be picked warriors of your household? A loincloth and a little dirt will disguise a man quite well. And their weapons could be hidden under the rowing benches or such places.»
Thambral laughed. «Indeed, Blade, I think you would be a more proper servant for King Hurakun than for myself. Your mind works not unlike that of the serpent that is the badge of his house. It shall be done as you suggest. And I hope you will keep your weapons close at hand also. I do not imagine that you would care to miss the chance of dealing with a few more of Ayocan's servants.»
«No, your Majesty. I would not.»
So Blade was fully armed two days later as he stood on the foredeck of Thambral's royal yacht, watching the conference barge creep closer across the water. Hurakun's black-painted galley was already moored to the other side of the barge, and Blade could see black-clad figures moving about on its deck. As the Gonsaran yacht crept closer, Blade recognized Hurakun, Kenas, and Mirasa aboard the galley. But where was Piralu? Blade raised his eyes from the barge to where the fleet of Chiribu lay anchored in a long line across the river. He tried to make out the flags on the anchored warships and troop barges, but the sun was too nearly in his eyes.
The Gonsaran yacht scraped alongside the barge. The disguised warriors that made up its crew leaped onto the barge's deck with mooring lines. Some of them stumbled and nearly fell, for they lacked the normal surefootedness of sailors. Nobody in the Chiribu delegation seemed to notice or care, though.
Blade wore his weapons openly and undisguised as he helped the crew lay the gangplank across the railing of the Gonsaran yacht. As its end dropped with a thud onto the deck of the barge, Blade turned his eyes to the north again. Sunlight still danced blindingly on the water, but Blade thought he saw a black-plumed figure climbing down the side of a troop barge into a small boat. He blinked, and looked again. The small boat scurried out of sight behind a large war galley. Blade turned back to matters more at hand. He drew his sword and prepared to help King Thambral across the gangplank.